Book Description

Traces the tradition of consumer protest and examines the early history of Consumers Union, which started as a working-class-oriented movement and soon evolved into the guiding light of an educated consumer elite. Silber argues that in choosing scientific testing as a means of consumer reform, the Consumers Union changed itself and the consumer movement more than it did American society. He uses three case studies -- reform of automative design, discouragement of smoking, and prevention of the contamination of food by radioactive fallout -- to demonstrate the use of scientific testing in social reform.